Last night I had the pleasure of hosting another Dinner 2.0 in Sydney. Once again it was a terrific night with a great bunch of people in the ‘next web’ scene in Sydney.

Some great conversation around the current state of the industry, especially on the recent Bulletin article and the supposedly poor state of web 2.0 VC in Australia – Mike Zimmerman notably said he was misquoted in the article – and of course, more on the YouTube acquisition and what it means for the ‘bubble’ talk.

Yorke Hinds gave an update on Zookoda’s progress towards a sale (22 interested parties, 3-4 very serious bidders); negotiations underway. Chris from Smoothbudget discovered a whole new world. Remember The Milk forgot to come – actually that’s not fair, Omar ended up in hospital, but thankfully it wasn’t too serious. Alistair Smith had some great stories of wild patents he’s been approached about, including: a teleport device (only worked if you walked into it though), a dancing blow-up doll and tracking diseases using missile guidance systems (this one is actually pretty serious).

Everybody else managed a healthy consumption of steak and beer. Our only serious issue now: no girls! Damn I hate IT for that.

Dinner 2.0 is a Sydney event designed to bring together people involved in local ‘next web’ companies.

Another one was held tonight and with some slightly too expensive [but very nice] food, alcohol, VCs, startups, consultants, and a location like the Centennial Hotel, you get a great setting for 3-4 hours of chatter on all things next web. Another great night with some fantastic people.

Thanks to everyone who attended. I was repeatedly told people had a great time, so I’m obliged to believe them! Next one should be late October, bigger and better. Maybe I’ll organize some startup demos (hmm… a Tangler preview perhaps…)

Attendees (which grew rather suddenly on me when everybody called at the last minute to ‘just squeeze in a friend’):